ALL-IN-ONE

Data Center Core Technologies (DCCOR) V1.0 Exam

CCIE and CCNP DC Core 350-601 Exam Cert Guide

1st Edition

Copyright © 2020 CCIEin8Weeks.com

All rights reserved.

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Our Cisco Next-Level Certification Catalog

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Our Cisco Next-Level Certification Catalog

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Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1 Network

Chapter 2 Compute

Chapter 3 Storage Network

Chapter 4 Automation

Chapter 5 Security

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Table of Contents

About the Author ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Preface ................................................................................................................................................................. 12

What this Study Guide contains ................................................................................................................. 13

How to use this Study Guide ........................................................................................................................ 13

What’s available on the CCIEin8weeks website ................................................................................... 14

CHAPTER 1 NETWORK .................................................................................................................................. 16 Network ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Apply routing protocols ..................................................................................................................................................................... 17

OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Route Summarization ...................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Inter-area Route Summarization ................................................................................................................................................. 20 External Route Summarization .................................................................................................................................................... 21 Route Filtering ................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 OSPFv3................................................................................................................................................................................................. 24 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................................................................. 25 MP-BGP ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 25 PIM ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25 Any Source Multicast (ASM) ...................................................................................................................................................... 26 Source Specific Multicast (SSM) ............................................................................................................................................... 26 FHRP ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 FHRP Best Practices........................................................................................................................................................................ 28

Apply switching protocols such as RSTP +, LACP, and vPC .............................................................................................. 29 RSTP + / Rapid PVST+ ................................................................................................................................................................. 29 LACP ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 vPC ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 31

Apply overlay protocols such as VXLAN EVPN and OTV ................................................................................................... 31 VXLAN EVPN .................................................................................................................................................................................. 32 VXLAN Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) ............................................................................................................................................ 33 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................................................................. 34 OTV ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 34

Apply ACI concepts .............................................................................................................................................................................. 34 Fabric setup ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 34 Access policies................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 VMM ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 36 Tenant policies ................................................................................................................................................................................... 37

Analyze packet flow (unicast, multicast, and broadcast) .................................................................................................. 37 Analyze cloud service and deployment models (NIST 800-145) .................................................................................. 38

Cloud Deployment Models ........................................................................................................................................................... 39 Cloud Service Models ..................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Public Cloud ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Private Cloud ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 42 Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) ........................................................................................................................................................ 43 Hybrid Cloud ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Multi-cloud .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 44 Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)................................................................................................................................................. 46 Platform as a service (PaaS) ......................................................................................................................................................... 47 Software as a Service (SaaS) ........................................................................................................................................................ 47

Describe software updates and their impacts ........................................................................................................................ 49

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Disruptive ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 49 EPLD ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 49 Patches .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 49

Implement network configuration management .................................................................................................................. 49 Implement infrastructure monitoring such as NetFlow and SPAN .............................................................................. 53

NetFlow Interface Support for Ingress (Received) Traffic on an interface ................................................................ 54 NetFlow Interface Support for Egress (Transmitted) Traffic on an Interface ........................................................... 54 NetFlow Flow Export Destination and Version .................................................................................................................... 54 Verifying NetFlow Configuration .............................................................................................................................................. 54 Creating a Flow Record .................................................................................................................................................................. 57 Creating a Flow Monitor ................................................................................................................................................................ 57 Creating a Flow Exporter............................................................................................................................................................... 57 Verifying Data in the Flow Monitor Cache ............................................................................................................................ 57 Configure and verify SPAN/RSPAN/ERSPAN.................................................................................................................... 58 Configuring SPAN, RSPAN and ERSPAN............................................................................................................................ 59 Configuring ERSPAN Source Session ..................................................................................................................................... 59 Configuring ERSPAN Destination Session ............................................................................................................................ 60

Explain network assurance concepts such as streaming telemetry ............................................................................ 60

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 62

CHAPTER 2 COMPUTE.................................................................................................................................... 64 Implement Cisco Unified Compute System Rack Servers ................................................................................................. 65 Implement Cisco Unified Compute System Blade Chassis ................................................................................................ 65

Initial setup .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 65 Infrastructure management............................................................................................................................................................ 66 Network management (VLANs, pools and policies, templates, QoS) ......................................................................... 66 Storage management (SAN connectivity, Fibre Channel zoning, VSANs, WWN pools, SAN policies,

templates) ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 68 Server management (Server pools and boot policies)......................................................................................................... 69

Explain HyperFlex Infrastructure Concepts and benefits (Edge and Hybrid Architecture vs all-flash)..... 69 Describe firmware and software updates and their impacts on B-Series and C-Series servers .................... 71 Implement compute configuration management (Backup and restore) ................................................................... 72 Implement infrastructure monitoring such as SPAN and Intersight ........................................................................... 73

Further Reading ................................................................................................................................................................................. 87

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 88

CHAPTER 3 STORAGE NETWORK .............................................................................................................. 90 Implement Fibre Channel ................................................................................................................................................................. 91

Switch fabric initialization ............................................................................................................................................................ 91 Port channels ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 92 FCID ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 92 CFS ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 93 Further Reading............................................................................................................................................................................... 94 Zoning ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 94 FCNS ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 95 Device alias ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 95 Further Reading............................................................................................................................................................................... 96 NPV and NPIV .................................................................................................................................................................................. 96 VSAN .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 97

Implement FCoE Unified Fabric (FIP and DCB) ..................................................................................................................... 97 Describe NFS and NAS concepts ................................................................................................................................................. 101 Describe software updates and their impacts (Disruptive/nondisruptive and EPLD) ................................... 104 Implement infrastructure monitoring ..................................................................................................................................... 105

Chapter Summary .........................................................................................................................................106

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CHAPTER 4 AUTOMATION .........................................................................................................................108 Implement automation and scripting tools........................................................................................................................... 109

EEM .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 109 Scheduler........................................................................................................................................................................................... 110 Bash Shell and Guest Shell for NX-OS................................................................................................................................. 111 REST API ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 120 Further Reading .............................................................................................................................................................................. 123 Further Reading .............................................................................................................................................................................. 131 JSON and XML encodings ........................................................................................................................................................ 131 XML Example ................................................................................................................................................................................ 132 XML Prologue ................................................................................................................................................................................ 133 XML Comments............................................................................................................................................................................. 133 XML Body ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 133 XML Attributes .............................................................................................................................................................................. 134 XML Namespaces ......................................................................................................................................................................... 134 JSON Example................................................................................................................................................................................ 134 JSON Data Types .......................................................................................................................................................................... 135 JSON Objects .................................................................................................................................................................................. 135 JSON Maps and Lists ................................................................................................................................................................... 135 YAML Example ............................................................................................................................................................................. 135 YAML File Structure ................................................................................................................................................................... 136 YAML Data Types ........................................................................................................................................................................ 136 YAML Indentation and File Structure ................................................................................................................................... 136 YAML Maps and Lists ................................................................................................................................................................ 136 YAML Comments ......................................................................................................................................................................... 137 XML Parsing in Python ............................................................................................................................................................... 137 Using the ElementTree APIs to parse XML ........................................................................................................................ 138 Using Minidom Module to parse XML ................................................................................................................................. 140 JSON Parsing in Python .............................................................................................................................................................. 141 YAML Parsing in Python ........................................................................................................................................................... 142 Further Reading .............................................................................................................................................................................. 143

Evaluate automation and orchestration technologies ..................................................................................................... 144 Ansible and Puppet ....................................................................................................................................................................... 144 Python ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 146 POAP .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 154 DCNM................................................................................................................................................................................................ 155 UCSD ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 156 PowerShell........................................................................................................................................................................................ 160

Chapter Summary .........................................................................................................................................165

CHAPTER 5 SECURITY ..................................................................................................................................167 Apply network security .................................................................................................................................................................. 168

AAA and RBAC ............................................................................................................................................................................ 168 Configuring login authentication and authorization on Cisco IOS XE ..................................................................... 168 Configuring downloadable ACLs (per-user ACLs) using Cisco IOS XE ............................................................... 168 ACI contracts and micro segmentation ................................................................................................................................. 169 First-hop security features such as dynamic ARP inspection (DAI), DHCP snooping, and port security .. 170 CoPP ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 172

Apply compute security .................................................................................................................................................................. 175 AAA and RBAC ............................................................................................................................................................................ 175 Further Reading............................................................................................................................................................................ 176 Keychain authentication .............................................................................................................................................................. 176

Apply storage security ..................................................................................................................................................................... 177 AAA and RBAC ............................................................................................................................................................................ 177

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Port security ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 178 Fabric binding ................................................................................................................................................................................. 178

Chapter Summary .........................................................................................................................................180

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About the Author

Muhammad Afaq Khan started his professional career at Cisco TAC San Jose and passed his

first CCIE in 2002 (#9070). He held multiple technical and management positions at Cisco San

Jose HQ over his 11 years of tenure at the company before moving into cloud software and data

center infrastructure IT industries.

He has worked at startups as well as Fortune 100 companies in senior leadership positions over

his career. He is also a published author (Cisco Press, 2009) and holds multiple patents in the

areas of networking, security, and virtualization. Currently, he is a founder at Full Stack

Networker and a vocal advocate for network automation technologies and NetDevOps.

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Preface

Congratulations! You have taken your first step towards preparing and passing the Cisco Data

Center Core (DCCOR) 350-601 V1.0 Exam.

Did you just purchase a copy? Interested in getting access to an DCCOR Exam Quiz?

Register here1 and send us an email at support@cciein8weeks.com to get started.

This study guide is dedicated to all those souls who will never settle for less than they can be, do,

share, and give!

1 https://bit.ly/2UhExXh

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What this Study Guide contains

This study guide includes all the topics from Cisco's official exam blueprint for Implementing

and Operating Cisco Data Center Core Technologies, i.e., DCCOR 350-601. As you may already

have noticed on the "Contents at a Glance" page that this guide has been formatted around the

Cisco's official DCCOR 350-601 exam topics or curriculum. The benefit? As you read through

the various topics, you will know exactly where you're within your learning journey.

All contents are carefully covered with core concepts, configuration snippets (where applicable),

and topic summaries to help you master the skills so you can confidently face the pressures of

the Cisco DCCOR exam as well as its real-world application.

The DCCOR exam contains subject matter from six domains, which also happen to be the six

chapters in this study guide.

• Network

• Compute

• Storage Network

• Automation

• Security

How to use this Study Guide

This guide is for anyone who's studying for Cisco DCCOR 350-601 V1.0 exam. I strongly

suggest taking a methodical approach for exam preparation, i.e., start with a target date or when

you would like to sit for the actual exam and then work backward to see what kind of study plan

would work for you.

Cisco Data Center Core (EDCCOR) 350-601 V1.0 Exam Topics

Bodies of Knowledge

Exam

Weight

Network 25%

Compute 25%

Storage Network 20%

Automation 15%

Security 15%

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What’s available on the CCIEin8weeks website

CCIEin8Weeks.com carries the supplemental resources (sold separately) that go hand in hand

with this study guide to further ensure your exam success.

• All-in-One Exam Prep Bundle2 that covers all bodies of knowledge tested on the DCCOR

Exam

• 6x Practice Quizzes (one for each section as per the official curriculum)

• 1x Practice Exam simulation (to help you prepare to face the pressure of a real Cisco

exam)

2 https://bit.ly/3f7h6Xz

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CHAPTER 1 NETWORK

This chapter covers the following exam topics from Cisco’s official 350-601 V1.0 Data Center

Core Technologies (DCCOR)3 exam blueprint.

• Network

• Apply routing protocols

o OSPFv2 and OSPFv3

o MP-BGP

o PIM

o FHRP

• Apply switching protocols such as RSTP +, LACP, and vPC

• Apply overlay protocols such as VXLAN, EVPN, and OTV

• Apply ACI concepts

o Fabric setup

o Access policies

o VMM

o Tenant policies

• Analyze packet flow (unicast, multicast, and broadcast)

• Analyze cloud service and deployment models (NIST 800-145)

• Describe software updates and their impacts

o Disruptive

o EPLD

o Patches

• Implement network configuration management

• Implement infrastructure monitoring such as NetFlow and SPAN

• Explain network assurance concepts such as streaming telemetry

3 https://bit.ly/2YnmFdE

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Network

Apply routing protocols

OSPFv2 and OSPFv3

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) v2 protocol is defined in RFC 2328 and based on link-state

technology where a link is an interface on an L3 device such as a router. The state of the link is

an attribute of that interface and its relationship to its neighbors. The interface attributes relevant

to OSPF include the IP address, subnet mask, the type of the network, the routers that are also

connected to that network and what have you.

Unlike distance vector protocols that use Bellman-Ford, OSPF uses the shortest path first (or

SPF or Dijkstra SPF) algorithm to determine the shortest to all known destination networks with

the help of a graph.

When an OSPF router boots up, it generates a link-state advertisement (or LSA) for that router

which represents the state of links. All routers exchange their LSAs via flooding mechanism.

Once an exchange is completed, every router ends up with a database that is used to calculate the

shortest path to each destination. Each OSPF router uses the Dijkstra SPF algorithm to derive the

shortest path tree and the result of this calculation is stored in the routing table (or RIB). The

algorithm places each router at the root of a tree and then calculates the shortest path to each

destination network based on the cumulate cost needed to reach that destination.

EIGRP OSPF

Best Path Selection

Algorithm

DUAL FSM Dijkstra SPF

Administrative

Distance

90 110

Metric Bandwidth, Load, Delay and

Reliability

Cost

VLSM Supported Not Supported

Authentication Supported Supported

Multi Path Supported Supported (ECMP)

Open Industry

Standard

No Yes, RFC 2328

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OSPF uses interface cost as its metric, which is inversely proportional to the bandwidth of that

interface, i.e. higher bandwidth means lower cost by default unless you modify it using ip ospf

cost <value> command.

OSPF uses flooding to exchange link-state advertisements between routers and all routers within

an area have an exact link-state database. Routers that have interfaces in multiple areas including

backbone are known as Area Border Routers (ABRs). Routers that act as a gateway between

OSPF and other routing protocols or other instances of the OSPF process are known as

Autonomous System Border Routers (or ASBRs). OSPF finite state machine (or FSM) includes

eight different states including down, attempt, init, two-way, exstart, exchange, loading and full.

OSPF addresses three classes of network types, point to point (p2p), point to multipoint (p2mp)

and broadcast.

Enabling OSPF on a Cisco router involves several steps.

1. Enabling an OSPF process (router ospf <process-id>)

2. Assigning areas to the interfaces (network <network/IP-address> <mask> <area-id>)

3. Configuring authentication (optional)

The OSPF process ID is a numeric value only locally significant to the router, i.e. it is never sent

to the other routers and thus doesn’t have to match with process IDs on other routers either.

Technically, you can also run multiple OSPF processes on the same router too.

The network command is a way of assigning an interface to an area whereas a mask is used for

ease of configuration so that you can put a bunch of interfaces into an area with one line. Area-id

is the area number you want the interface to be in. It can be configured in a simple number

format such as 0 or 1 or 2, and in the form of an IP address say 0.0.0.0 or 1.1.1.1.

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RTA#

interface fa0/0

ip address 182.21.11.1 255.255.255.0

interface fa0/1

ip address 182.21.12.2 255.255.255.0

interface fa0/2

ip address 108.21.1.1 255.255.255.0

router ospf 101

network 182.21.0.0 0.0.255.255 area 0.0.0.0

network 108.21.1.1 0.0.0.0 area 2

Route Summarization

Summarization is about consolidating multiple routes into one single advertisement. In OSPF,

this is normally done at the ABRs. You can configure summarization between any two areas;

however, it is recommended to summarize towards the backbone area so it can inject those

summaries into other areas. Summarization is highly effective if the network addresses assigned

are contiguous.

There are two types of summarization, i.e.

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• Inter-area routes

• External routes

Inter-area Route Summarization

Inter-area route summarization is done on ABRs and applies to routes from within the AS, i.e. it

doesn’t apply to routes coming into the OSPF domain from external sources. You can use area

<area-id> range <address> <mask> command to configure inter-area summary. Here, area-id

refers to the area containing networks that are to be summarized.

In this topology, RTB is summarizing the range of subnets from 108.21.64.0 to 18.21.95.0 into

one range, i.e. 108.21.64.0 255.255.224.0 (/27) into the backbone area. Likewise, RTC is

summarizing 108.21.96.0/27 into the backbone.

RTB#

router ospf 101

area 1 range 108.21.64.0 255.255.224.0

RTC#

router ospf 101

area 1 range 108.21.96.0 255.255.224.0

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External Route Summarization

External routes summarization is relevant to external routes only, ones that are injected into

OSPF via redistribution. Much like inter-area summarization, the address range being contiguous

would make it straightforward.

You will need to use summary-address <ip-address> <mask> command on ASBR(s) doing the

redistribution into OSPF. This command will not affect if configured on a router with no

connection to another router outside the OSPF domain.

In the above topology, RTA and RTD are injecting external routes into OSPF. RTA is injecting

subnets within the range of 108.21.64-95 and RTD is injecting subnets 108.21.96-127.

RTA#

router ospf 101

summary-address 108.21.64.0 255.255.224.0

redistribute bgp 50 metric 1000 subnets

RTD#

router ospf 101

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summary-address 108.21.96.0 255.255.224.0

redistribute bgp 20 metric 1000 subnets

Route Filtering

Unlike RIP or distance vector protocols, OSPF has built-in controls over route propagation.

OSPF routes are allowed or denied into different OSPF areas based on the area type, such as

backbone or stub areas. OSPF ABRs limit the advertisement of different types of routes into

different OSPF areas depending on the type of associated LSA. For example, an OSPF ABR

bordering an OSPF stub area would prevent the advertisement of external routes into the stub

area. The ABR is a stub or totally-stub area that would advertise a default route as an inter-area

route. However, an ABR to a totally-stub area prevents advertisements of any inter-area

including any external routes into that area. One common use of route filtering is when

performing mutual redistribution.

There are a couple of key concepts to understand about OSPF filtering.

• With passive interface command configured, OSPF doesn’t send hellos on an interface.

This means that the device wouldn’t discover any neighbor on that interface.

• Most filtering tools available do not filter out or remove routes from within the LS

database.

• The route filters have no impact on the presence of routes in the routing table beyond the

local router, i.e. they are only locally significant.

Distribute-list in works on any OSPF router and would prevent routes from being added to the

routing table but routes still get added to the LS database i.e. the downstream neighbors will still

have those routes. However, distribute-list out works on an ASBR to filter redistributed routes

into other protocols.

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RTE#

interface fa0/1

ip address 213.25.15.130 255.255.255.192

interface fa0/0

ip address 213.25.15.2 255.255.255.192

router rip

network 213.25.15.0

RTC#

interface fa0/0

ip address 213.25.15.67 255.255.255.192

interface fa0/1

ip address 213.25.15.1 255.255.255.192

router ospf 101

redistribute rip metric 10 subnets

network 213.25.15.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

router rip

redistribute ospf 101 metric 2

passive-interface Ethernet0

network 213.25.15.0

RTA#

interface fa0/0

ip address 213.25.15.68 255.255.255.192

router ospf 101

redistribute rip metric 10 subnets

network 213.25.15.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

router rip

redistribute ospf 101 metric 1

network 213.25.15.0

If you were to do a “show ip route” on RTC, you would have found two paths to the

213.25.15.128 destination network. This occurred because RTC advertised the route to RTA via

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OSPF and RTA advertised it back via RIP. Now, in order to fix this issue, the most effective way

would be to use a distribute-list on RTA to deny the 213.25.15.0 network from being put back

into RIP.

RTA#

interface fa0/0

ip address 213.25.15.68 255.255.255.192

router ospf 101

redistribute rip metric 10 subnets

network 213.25.15.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

router rip

redistribute ospf 101 metric 1

network 213.25.15.0

distribute-list 1 out ospf 101

OSPFv3

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) v3 protocol is defined in RFC 5340 which defines the

modifications to OSPFv2 to support IPv6. The fundamental ways the OSPF operates, such as

flooding, DR election process, area support, SPF computations, NSSAs, and what have you,

remain unchanged.

The OSPFv3 includes the following changes to support IPv6 protocol.

• Removal of addressing semantics from OSPF packets and the LSAs

• Introduction of new LSAs to carry IPv6 addresses and prefixes

• Ability to run OSPF on per-link basis as opposed to per-subnet basis

• Removal of authentication from the protocol (IPv6 already includes AH/ESP IPsec

support)

• More flexibility around OSPF options handling, fields and packet size limitations

• Generalization of flooding scope for LSAs (link-local, area scope, and AS scope)

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Further Reading

OSPF Configuration Guide4

OSPF Design Guide5

4 https://bit.ly/2GMcKGh

5 https://bit.ly/31jSOUx